Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

The changing world of romantic fiction

When I was younger, my favorite pastime was curling up alone with a Silhouette Romance. Remember the times when Silhouette Romances had purple covers? (Thanx for the example, Nora.) When all the heroes were strong, alpha millionaires, and all the heroines meek, silly girls who could never stand up for themselves? Remember how the steamiest scenes involved passionate kissing, and perhaps even a sweet caress of the breast? Lord, I loved those books. I’d sit there and dream about the day I would meet my hero and be swept off my feet. More than that, I dreamed about the day that I would write one of those romances.

So here I am, a published author wondering why I never did write one of those books? What happened between then and now? How did I land up writing sexually charged tales filled with explicit details of loving instead? Did I change, or did the world of romance reading?

At what point did breathless kisses start extending into breathless caresses? When did oral sex become not just a titillating, secret part of the love scene, but an expected, explicit one? When did we stop finding ridiculous synonyms for the purple-helmeted, one-eyed monster, and start calling a spade a spade? (Yes, I know. That expression is almost as bad as the helmeted monster.)

If you had told me, as a young adult, that I would find the idea of romantic ménage a turn on, I would have laughed at you. Okay, I would have blushed first and then laughed. C’mon, threesomes? Dare I say it…anal intercourse? Uh uh. People did not talk about those things romantically, never mind write about them. Sure, we saw it all in the porn industry. But wasn’t that just the idealization of an average straight man’s fantasy? One man, two or more woman? There was no love involved there. It was just sex. It was not romance.

So when did it become romantic? When did this whole new generation of romance readers begin craving the openness of erotic romance? The thrill of voyeurism and exhibitionism, of m/f/m loving? More than that, when did gay romance — m/m romance — become such a huge seller among female readers? How on earth did I ever get to write a romantic menage?

Was it with the development of ebooks? The ability to now buy our books in the privacy of our own homes? Did it allow us, the readers, to demand something we’ve always been too shy to demand? Heck I remember walking into Borders, a mere five years ago, in search of some reading material. It was not easy to find. Don’t for a moment think I found the Erotic Romance in the Romance Section. Nope, only after asking (with a blood red face) someone at the counter, did I finally locate one or two books tucked away from prying eyes, under the Self Help Section. Self help? Hello?

Then I came home, climbed on to the internet and found dozens and dozens of books. It was easy. I didn’t have to ask anyone, I could browse without feeling eyes burning the back of my head, and I could pick and choose the books I wanted to read. And when I read them, I could acknowledge, in the privacy of my own home that I thoroughly enjoyed them. Even the ones with…dare I say it…anal sex.

So, is that what’s changed? Has the anonymity the internet has given us allowed us to become more public with our preferences? Has the internet changed my perception of a romance novel?

I guess it has. Don’t get me wrong. I still adore those books that describe a breathless kiss under a moonlit sky. But ya know what I like even more? A breathless kiss under a moonlit sky, followed by a night of steamy, hot loving.

Jess

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